On Monday afternoon, Rep. Frank Lucas found himself the proud owner of several tea bags; some brought by Girl Scouts.

“People handing you tea bags is very important. King George didn’t listen and that’s why we aren’t British,” Lucas grinned at the Scouts. “I have 690,000 constitutes in the Third District. If they are handing me tea bags, I’d better listen. If I don’t pay attention, I could wind up in one of these tea bags.” Lucas began with the economy and the various stimulus plans enacted by both the Bush and Obama administrations.

He touched first on the first $400 billion handed out by the Bush administration last fall and the subsequent $250 billion going into two of the nation’s largest banks. “Little did you know that you, the taxpayer would soon own a big share of two of the nation’s banks,” Lucas said. “The next $180 billion went into AIG and promptly flowed out to foreign banks,” he added. “Now then who was Treasury Secretary Paulson, Bush’s Secretary? He was an investment banker, he probably had played golf with the very men he gave the money to.” Lucas then moved to the next $800 billion in stimulus, much of it earmarked for the development of a new high speed passenger rail system rather than the maintenance of the infrastructure already existing in the U.S. Lucas then pointed out that he hadn’t voted for either bill. Lucas again and again expressed his frustration with the administration and it’s racking up more and more on the nation’s debt; he then turn to agriculture. “AG…now this is going to be quite a process.”

Lucas explained that the new AG Secretary is from Iowa, a former governor.  “In Iowa, they measure their soil in feet while we measure ours in inches. They get good rain there every year. It’s not the Garden of Eden, but it’s the closest that we can imagine in this district.” Lucas then said that it was mainly going to be about education for now.

“The secretary wants to immediately raise Ethanol production from 10 percent to 15 percent, (amount of corn used), without even thinking of what this will do to grain prices and its effect on cattle and people food.”
Lucas points out that the Obama administration is talking of a massive shift of money from ag production to social services, food stamps, etc. “They see 30 million people to 90,000 farmers and ranchers,” Lucas said.
He then touched on the fact that there has been talk of producers having to show their tax returns to prove qualification for farm programs. “I don’t want my tax return bounced around the country,” Lucas said.
Lucas then went to the war front, remarking that there had been a great change in Iraq as far as violence was concerned; however, there are questions if the Iraqi government was going to be able to supply its citizens jobs.

“They, (Iraqai government), are having problems keeping their bills paid.”  He pointed out that President Obama has doubled the troop level in Afghanistan.  Back home he said that the administration was looking to tighten the rules on donations.  “They are looking to have an influence on how we spend our money,” Lucas said.  Mary Ruth Tapp asked if he supported H.R. 1207, Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve; Lucas replied that he was on board.

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